From Playful Dares To Real Heartbeats

Synopsis

The new transfer student, Sophie Lane, lost a game and chose the dare. She was dared to choose a boy right then and there to be her boyfriend for a whole year. Sophie picked Ryan Evans, my childhood friend. Ryan crossed his legs casually, looking completely unfazed. "Sure, whatever. It's just a game." The whole crowd went wild. "Whoa, a dare to date? This is totally like playing house!" "Even if it's just a game, you gotta make it look real!" The group started chanting, "Kiss! Kiss!" "Make it a real kiss." I stayed quiet, looking down at my phone. There were messages from Lucas: [I just took last year's SAT practice test. Scored 1400.] [Scrappy, I'm catching up to you.] [Don't back out now. You know the rules.] I was fuming. "Scrappy" was the nickname I had at my grandma's place, ancient history from when we were little. Only Lucas would dare mess with me like that. I shut off my phone in a huff. I glanced up and saw Sophie sitting on Ryan's lap, her hands resting on his shoulders while his hands wrapped around her waist. They kissed with the kind of skill that made it look almost too real, completely wrapped up in each other and impossible to pull apart. I just stood there, stunned silent, like I didn't even exist—totally shut out, just one more face in the crowd cheering them on.